The LGA is pressuring ministers to end council tax capping. LGA chairman Margaret Eaton this week wrote to local government minister John Healey urging him ‘not to exercise your capping powers in 2009/10'. Cllr Eaton believes councils have demonstrated restraint and responsiveness over tax levels during the recession, by setting average increases of just 3% this year – 2% below the government's usual cap. ‘Many of our member authorities – perhaps particularly smaller districts with low tax bases – have had extraordinarily challenging issues to resolve in setting council tax levels,' Cllr Eaton writes. ‘They have not shirked from difficult decisions, including in some cases making job cuts. Capping harms local accountability and should be abolished,' she adds.
